Bonkers Blog August 2015

Regular site visitors will know better than to look at BiB on the last day
of the month expecting to read something significant. With
Month View being by far the most popular
BiB viewing mode it’s not worth putting much of an effort into something that gets lost the very next day.
However, here's a filler for those who think I must have snuffed it when nothing appears.

Copped offYesterday
afternoon the air around Lesnes Abbey was filled with the sound of motorcycle engines. It quite often is.

For the past month I have kept a camera with a long lens on it ready for such
eventualities but the sight lines from home are not good and yesterday the light was so poor I didn’t even try.

However Brian Barnett high up in his tower block sees everything.

Brian sent his motorbike pictures to Thamesmead police via Twitter.

A waste of time as Brian soon discovered. On the August Bank Holiday weekend, Bexley is left very much under-policed
while “most of the team” battle with the muggers and pickpockets attracted to Notting Hill.

One of the ladies manning
the Peabody tent on Friday told me that her handbag
was much lighter returning from her visit to Notting Hill than it was when she went.

Shoreham. We have become a load of wimpsTo
wander right off topic, what is all this nonsense about flying displays?
Shoreham was a tragedy and I know that part of the A27 because my mother lived nearby.

I can understand Hunters being grounded until the cause of the crash is
discovered, but no aerobatics over land and now no trailing smoke effects? What
a bunch of ninnies we have become!

I lived in Farnborough (Hampshire) from 1949 until 1958 and only just beyond its
borders from then until 1984.

Little boys in 1949 were either Spitfire or Hurricane supporters as they flew
over schools and homes.

When the jets took over, the boy gangs split into Hawker Hunter fans or Supermarine
Swift supporters. Anyone expressing a preference for the American Sabre was ostracised completely.

They were all supersonic in a dive and the double boom
was a familiar sound as they zoomed out of the sky over housing estates,
schools and the town in general. No one cared. I saw a Gloster Meteor come down
once narrowly missing the railway line. It was just one of those things.

Every little boy knew the names of the test pilots, Neville Duke, John Derry,
Bill Waterton, John Cunningham, Roland Beamont. There were no pop stars to worship so we made do with real men.

In the week leading up to the 1952 Farnborough Show there was a new plane on
view. A black de Havilland 110; with its twin boom design it bore a resemblance
to the older Vampire and it captured the imagination of many a little urchin as it
flew over our homes at little more than tree top level.

On the Saturday my parents attended the show while I, a not quite nine year old,
was left with dozens more freeloaders with our noses pressed into the wire
fence. I suspect Dad took Mum in on one of his trade passes, it was an expensive
day out even then.

When the DH110 came over, I and no doubt every little Farnborough schoolboy,
noticed it was white and not the usual black one. (Google says it was
silver but I remember it as white.) And as everyone has been reminded over the
past week it broke up and one of the engines hurtled into the spectators.

The little gang of aircraft spotters went home and in my case thinking not a lot
of it. Mum and Dad came home and spoke of it obviously but I do not recall any
hysterics from anyone. If I am not muddling it up with another accident the
local technical college was turned into a temporary mortuary.

Planes were always falling out of the sky. One of the Red Arrows forerunners
ploughed into Blackbushe airport (the scene of the recent Bin Laden family
crash) or somewhere nearby while the rest of the team carried on. A de Havilland Dove (which my father occasionally
flew in) went into the hill at the western end of Farnborough’s runway.

The only crash that seemed real to me was when I exchanged a wave with a low
flying helicopter pilot and three minutes later he and the rest of the crew were dead.

I’d better not tell you about the time me and the gang scaled Farnborough’s
perimeter fence and had our hair singed by a Royal Navy Buccaneer which dropped
some sort of napalm bomb as part of its display.

If little boys are not allowed to be thrilled by aeroplanes, what hope is there
for engineering in this country?

Tower Hamlets etc.
If you have waded down this far you probably deserve to learn something possibly
interesting about Will Tuckley.

As you know, the police have told both Mick Barnbrook and me that they have
referred the allegation of Misconduct in Public Office to the Crown Prosecution Service and there is likely to be a long wait.

It’s just a matter of what excuse the authorities decide to come up with and all
that the general public will get out of it is further proof that authority in
Britain has become corrupt from top to bottom.

I may be paranoid but I think the police in Greenwich who have, as far as I can
tell, been very thorough with their investigation, may now be covering their backsides
against the inevitable.

Whilst they have willingly confirmed during telephone conversations that Will
Tuckley’s name is with the CPS they are strangely reluctant to put that in
writing. Mick Barnbrook managed to get a promise to do so which came to nothing,
and I have asked by email three times and got no reply to them all.

Maybe they are just very busy.

By the way, there is nothing very significant for tomorrow either. Anyone got a
scandal that needs to be aired?

The weekly trip to Broadway to observe progress on Phase II of its
regeneration was not especially interesting. The traffic queues were short both in length and duration.
The inconvenience fell mainly on bus passengers and pedestrians.

TfL in their usual uncaring way provided no on board warning of the Lion Road
bus stop closure and the walk back from the Asda stop would be quite a long one for
anyone heavily laden or not wholly fit. (The gap before the Lion Road stop is much shorter.)

At
the Lion Road junction, pedestrians were forced to cross the road twice because the footpath was entirely
closed on the southern side of Broadway.

There had not been sufficient progress on the scheme to get any sense of what
may one day appear, meanwhile there is the artist’s impression below.

Make the most of it because it may not be built to last. Outside the Asda
supermarket the paving stones are making a dash for freedom. Slowly migrating towards the kerb.

The Lesnes Abbey event yesterday gave the impression of having been organised
by enthusiastic junior Bexley council employees with a total lack of support from above.

The Parkour was supposed
to get an official opening at 2 p.m. but arriving
only two minutes late I saw no sign of it. No mayor cutting a ribbon, not even a ward
councillor present. My enquiries revealed that neither they nor Teresa Pearce MP were invited.

There were four event stands present and a face painter. Even the ice cream van failed to make an appearance.

The people in the green tents (Photo 1
of 4 below) had a few leaflets
about the Abbey for the inquisitive but nothing that hasn’t been seen countless times before. I was hoping to pick up something about
the recent archaeological finds but there is apparently unlikely to be any
more news until next year.

The abbey groundsman told me that the builders were expected to move on to
the
Visitor Centre site on 10th September but I could probably have asked him about that at any time.

Peabody Housing had put on a reasonable show with diagrams of their proposed improvements to the Green Chain Walk.
The Yarnton Road to Southmere Lake section should be finished within the next two or
three weeks or to put it another way, nearly four months late.

The Yarnton Road to Alsike Road section will get similar treatment soon
afterwards; landscaping and the steeply inclined paths made a little easier. There was even some talk of
replacing the ugly concrete bridge over the railway
line at some time but that is more hope and aspiration at the moment and will be a long way off.

A Bexley council employee with a clipboard was floating around seeking ideas for
improving the Ridgeway, which is the walkway over the old Bazalgette sewer that ends at Crossness.

By far the most popular stand was run by Karen and Charlie Slade who had driven
in period costume from Leicestershire to demonstrate the ancient crafts of tile
making and mixing lime mortar.

Councillor Peter Craske announced in
his recent Press Release that a
parkour would be officially opened in the Lesnes Abbey Park playground on 28th August and I had no
idea what a parkour was. The park is only three or four minutes walk from home so I went along to take a look.

The purpose of the parkour is without much doubt to attract teenagers, which it was doing very successfully. It
is certainly not suitable for the under tens for which the playground mainly
caters and yesterday the only people using it were fit young men.
I do hope that Cabinet Member Craske has thought this one through.

It’s
not just dealing with a lying Bexley council all the time that can be ever so slightly
depressing, it’s also going to the back pages of the Daily Telegraph and
finding someone you know featured large on the obituary page.

Twice in the past couple of years I have read about old classmates from
Farnborough Grammar School. First it was professor Terry Hamblin who was a
world class haematologist specialising in cancer of the lymph system -
ironically he died of exactly that - and then there was Jock Young, reckoned to
be the world’s leading criminologist, whatever that might be, but it sounds as
though I could have done with him alongside me in Bexley.

Today it was Peter Scopes from Sidcup.

He was briefly a Bexley councillor but there was much more to him that that. I
met him several times while following the story of Bexley council’s failed attempt to
prosecute Rita Grootendorst. He was giving her able and expert advice
despite being not in the best of health.

A man versed in many subjects, author, mathematician, school teacher in both
Eltham and Tanzania, overseas adviser to HMG and lay preacher. Being a LibDem
councillor in Bexley must have seemed like an awful comedown. But a brilliant man
on my brief acquaintance and a great loss to all who knew him.

It can become a little depressing that various authorities will always accept
the word of the liars at Bexley council over people like Mick Barnbrook and
myself who are always meticulous in our reporting of events such as
councillor Cheryl Bacon’s closed session meeting and the appointment of Will
Tuckley as Chief Executive to Tower Hamlets council.

There is absolutely no need to make things up or exaggerate when reporting
Bexley council, one would get found out sooner or later or be sued for libel.

The Commissioners at Tower Hamlets were sufficiently concerned about
Mick’s
email to make enquiries in Bexley and received all the assurances they needed to
dismiss his home truths out of hand. A vexatious fascist blogger.

I decided I would throw my own hat into the ring and send an email to the Commissioners.

An edited version appears below. It is edited only to protect honest
Conservative councillors in Bexley - there are some - from retribution from
above. Retribution that has been meted out before when the ruling clique believed too many
truths had leaked out. They hadn’t but that is another story.

Taking out whole paragraphs weakens the email considerably but it has to be done
to protect certain individuals from the wrath of Teresa O’Neill OBE (Outmanoeuvring Barnbrook’s Email).

Dear Sirs,

I am amazed at the reports following your meeting to appoint Mr. Tuckley as
Chief Executive, both from those present and in the press.

Mr. Barnbrook is neither vexatious nor a blogger and every word he wrote to you
is true and I have copies of all the documentation to prove it.

I am copying this email to my MP and to my Bexley ward councillor as both keep a
close eye on local events and I invite either of them to contact you if any part
of what I am about to say is inaccurate.

The main incident to which Mr. Barnbrook referred took place on 19th June 2013
when a Bexley council public meeting was illegally put into “Closed Session” by
the chairman. Those words are hers.

The next day a council memo referred to the incident in a measured and accurate
way but when it became more obvious later that the closure was contrary to the
Local Government Act a reason for its closure had to be invented and a press
release issued. The invention was (I summarise) that every member of the public
was running riot in the chamber, shouting, waving papers etc. Hence the closed session.

None of that was true. Only one person moved, most said nothing at all. The
initial council report made no mention of a widespread disturbance, only that
one member of the public had a small audio recorder in his hand and the police
who were called to the meeting confirmed it had been entirely law abiding.

[20 words removed] there was no disturbance in the chamber and
later two Labour councillors joined [one word removed]. A report from a council employee made
no reference to a disturbance either.

Five Conservative councillors refused to confirm there was a disturbance when asked to do so.

When I discovered that Bexley council was making derogatory comments about me (I
too was at the meeting) in response to FOI requests in connection with the
incident I made a formal complaint to Mr. Tuckley suggesting that he interviewed
the councillors who had expressed a wish to tell the truth about what took place
at the meeting. He refused to interview any of them. [Eleven words removed].

Mr. Tuckley continued to refuse to carry out any investigation over several
months, preferring to stick with the council’s fabricated line that there had
been a major disturbance in which every member of the public present had
participated. The police report did not support him but they were prevailed upon
to alter it. This is a separate issue now being investigated by an Assistant
Commissioner at Scotland Yard.

As Mr. Tuckley would not agree to conduct any enquiries into the events of June
2013 and the falsehoods disseminated about it by Bexley council, Mr. Barnbrook
and three members of the public, one of whom is myself, made an allegation of
crime to the police.

There has been a long history of “political interference” in Bexley police
matters by Bexley council (the police's words not mine) and because of that the
case was sent to Greenwich police for investigation.

The four members of the public were interviewed at considerable length (several
hours each) and three Labour councillor witnesses too. A great deal of
supporting evidence was submitted including an audio/video DVD.

[58 word paragraph removed].

The police told me of that message and the same councillor [17 words removed].

The investigating police officer unfortunately became seriously unwell and with
my agreement (he tended to correspond with me rather than Mr. Barnbrook) he did
not hand the case over to another officer. This caused a delay of several months.

However he did tell me he intended to present the case to the CPS personally
because it was both complex and powerful. Off the record he told me that if he
could get it to court he would expect the sentence to be “life changing”.

According to a message to Mr. Barnbrook the case is now with the CPS. The police
considered the evidence of Misconduct by Mr. Tuckley to be compelling. The
information you received from Bexley council is misleading to say the least.

The leader of Bexley council is not beyond reproach either. She personally (I
have the police's report on the matter) asked Bexley police to arrest me for,
and I quote, “criticising councillors”. The police in Bexley are so obedient to
her that I was rescued only by the intervention of the IPCC.

Neither is it right to suggest that Mr. Barnbrook is a racist. He was appointed
sports mentor to Stephen Lawrence while serving in the Metropolitan Police. He
joined the BNP because it was the only prominent anti-EU party at the time. He
left when he came to the conclusion that its leader Nick Griffin was corrupt and
that the party's banking practices were suspect.

I hope that this is sufficient information to demonstrate that there is an
active police investigation into Mr. Tuckley's conduct although I expect it will
at any moment be subject to the “political interference” for which Bexley
council is renowned.

As I said at the outset, if any part of what is written here is inaccurate in
any way, I am sure you will get an email from my MP and my ward councillor
within the next hour or two. However every statement is supported by
documentation that I hold.

Yours faithfully,

The email was copied to the Leader of Tower Hamlets council, the leader of their Independent
group and the local newspaper plus Teresa Pearce MP and councillor Danny Hackett
in accordance with paragraph three of the email.

In my view it is unlikely to affect Mr. Tuckley’s appointment - and who would
not want him to go? - and that is not the intention.

It is however important that the truth be known about Will Tuckley and more
particularly the dishonesty that runs through Bexley council from top to bottom
should be broadcast as widely as possible.

Welcome to BiB’s new readers in Tower Hamlets who join those in the Isle of Man
where the last discredited Bexley executive ended up.

Michael Barnbrook’s email was dismissed by Tower Hamlets council as the work of
a fascist and vexatious blogger and that information could only have come from Bexley council. It is yet
another outrageous lie and absolutely typical of council leader Teresa O’Neill.
Maybe another Freedom of Information request is called for.

I already knew that the true story of Will Tuckley’s refusal to investigate a complaint and the subsequent criminal
investigation by Greenwich police had been dismissed as “vexatious rhetoric” by Tower Hamlets
because they were taken in by Bexley council’s assurances, but now I am a far right extremist too.

At least that is
what The East London Advertiser is saying. Shoddy journalism at
its best. Is no one going to check the facts with Greenwich police? Tower
Hamlets council may consider it “vexatious rhetoric” but the police were
prepared to spend six months looking into it and were very supportive. The case
was not only submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service, the police officer
considered it worthy of a personal presentation.
A suitable complaint has been sent to the newspaper. Maybe
I should show them some of the evidence against Tuckley that is with the police.

Going across to Tower Hamlets last night didn’t seem to be a worthwhile
proposition when there was a high probability that their extraordinary council meeting was likely
to be voted into closed session. In the event the vote went the other way and
this report comes second hand from someone with more confidence in the
democratic process than me.

Instead I went to meet Michael Barnbrook for the first time in many weeks
because he had set up a meeting with legal advice on how a private prosecution
might be attempted against Will Tuckley and councillor Cheryl Bacon in the event
of the Crown Prosecution Service not proceeding with the case against them.

With commendable foresight Mick set up a bank account as soon as Will Tuckley refused to investigate
the complaint against Cheryl Bacon and half a
dozen of us have been paying into it by standing order every month since. There
is no shortage of funds for a private prosecution.

Tower Hamlets has an elected Labour mayor, 24 Labour councillors, 17
Independents and five Conservatives and has been run by government appointed
Commissioners since the previous Mayor disgraced himself during the 2014 elections.

Bexley
Chief Executive Will Tuckley had been chosen from a shortlist of four to
be appointed Tower Hamlets’ Chief Executive and the decision was to be
nodded through last night. However Mr. Michael Barnbrook from Blackfen
threw a
spanner into the works last week by informing the Commissioners of Mr. Tuckley’s
perversion of justice in Bexley - he refused to investigate claims by several
people including councillors, that councillor Cheryl Bacon had lied in support
of her decision to illegally close a public meeting.

Tuckley said several times over a period of many months that he would only take
account of the liar’s statement and not those of five councillors, four members
of the public and a council employee all of whom contradicted almost every word
of Cheryl Bacon’s account.

The Commissioners took Mick Barnbrook’s statement quite seriously, asking both
Tuckley and Bexley council leader Teresa O’Neill OBE (Obligatory Beguiling Excuses) before
the meeting to explain why the facts of the criminal investigation into the
allegations against Will
Tuckley’s had not been declared earlier.

The meeting ran for a little over half an hour chaired by the Deputy
Speaker of the council, Councillor Rajib Ahmed. In attendance were all the
Conservatives, most of the Labour councillors and Independents. The government
Commissioner, Sir Ken Knight was also there but not Mr. Tuckley.

The meeting was informed that Bexley is Bonkers is Mick Barnbrook’s blog - which
is really very funny considering Mick struggles to send an email, let alone
write computer code - and everyone appeared to believe it. Those present were
informed that Mick is a “vexatious blogger”, so as you can see no one in Tower
Hamlets is much concerned with facts.

The Labour leader Councillor Rachel Saunders said that the blog is Fascist, further proof that Tower
Hamlets council is partially comprised of ignoramuses. Maybe I should sue her.

Will Tuckley had submitted in his defence of his less than fulsome job application that the police had not asked for
comment since last December which I believe to be true. I have seen Bexley
council’s defence and I commented to the investigating officer “they would say
that wouldn’t they”. His reply was to the effect that there was no choice other than admitting guilt.

Since then the investigation was at first delayed because mutually convenient dates for councillor interviews
were hard to come and then because the principal investigating officer was unavoidably taken off the case for
a couple of months, but he has since given assurances that he personally presented the case to the Crown
Prosecution Service because of his belief in the sound evidence presented. He
also warned that there may be a considerable delay before the CPS reaches a decision.

All of this contradicts what Tower Hamlets council was told last night.
The police sought solicitors’ advice months ago and determined there was a case to
answer. Far from not taking any action, Greenwich police made it totally clear
to me that the case was serious enough to lead to a prison sentence. Either
Bexley council has been submitting porkies to Tower Hamlets or the investigating
officer in Greenwich is as bad as his counterparts in Bexley. I remain very
confident that the investigating officer is a man of total integrity.

So Will Tuckley has jumped ship with both Labour and Tory councillors in Tower
Hamlets backing
him and only the Independents led by Councillor Rhabid Khan expressing doubts by abstaining.

What now? Bexley is well rid of Tuckley obviously but who should replace him?

Several years ago, at the time Bexley council was busy rejecting the petition to
pay more reasonable salaries to its senior managers, Eric Pickles the
Communities Secretary back then was of the opinion that no council should have
both a full time leader and a chief executive. Bexley council defied him but it seems like an admirable plan to me.

With the pending departure of Bexley's Chief Executive there comes a great opportunity to finish remodelling Bexley's senior management
team, fulfil Labour's election pledge of not replacing the Chief Executive, and
get better value for the taxpayer.

In the face of huge cuts to council services, it cannot be right that the Chief Executive gets paid £200,000 a year
while many residents and council employees struggle to make ends meet on, or
below the London living wage."

At an extraordinary council meeting in Tower Hamlets Will Tuckley the current chief
executive in Bexley was appointed to run Britain’s most corrupt council.

Mick Barnbrook’s email
to the Commissioners appointed to run Tower Hamlets council caused a considerable stir but both Labour and
Conservative councillors voted in favour of Tuckley’s appointment.

A report of the meeting was telephoned through late last night by a friendly
voice at Tower Hamlets, the written confirmation of it is awaited.

Some of the information put before Tower Hamlets’ councillors were clearly false
as you might expect but there was a government directive to make the appointment
by today. The little matter of recruiting someone who refuses to countenance the
truth is inconsequential compared to that.

Pending the written confirmation of events in Tower Hamlets, their
supplementary report may be
read here. It does not correspond to police reports communicated to either Mick Barnbrook or me but that is only to be expected.

To
say I have been inundated today with references to councillor
Craske being
featured on the BBC website is perhaps an exaggeration when the number is only
six but I would guess that some Bexley residents are still not aware that Peter
Craske makes a living out of exploiting the weak willed the gullible and the addicted.

He is the leading, paid by the Association of British Bookmakers, exponent
of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals.

Abbey
Wood has always had a problem with water. It has moved on a bit from
rowing boats in Fendyke Road (the 1953 floods) but even the slightest bit of
rain can render some of its roads impassable to pedestrians.

Abbey Road was so poorly resurfaced in 2009, come to think of it it wasn’t, they only moved
the kerb stones towards the centre of the road in one of Bexley’s mad narrowing
operations, and
the result was that the well worn tyre track some way out from the footpath
became a shallow ditch a foot out from the kerb.

Any competent traffic engineer could have predicted the end result but Bexley
hasn’t got any competent engineers, certainly not Andrew Bashford who masterminded
the wrecking of Abbey Road
is not a competent engineer.

Only an hour ago I got a good soaking from a speeding car while negotiating the
flood on the incompetently constructed Abbey Road footpath.

Whilst one has come to expect rubbish engineering by Bexley council I expect
better from Network Rail which on the whole does a pretty good job of constructing
Crossrail to a high standard. However even they seem unable to cope with
every drainage problem.

The official reason for there being no roof on the footbridge is that because
there is necessarily almost no shelter on Platform 1 Network Rail didn’t want people to use
the bridge as a shelter and dash down wet steps when the train arrives.

One can see their point but it does rather smack of two wrongs making a right.
Maybe they will put a temporary shelter on the new platform because there is not
going to be a canopy over it until the new station is completed in 2017.
Photo 2 is the rearranged footbridge to Platform 1 which allows for the work
that needs to be done on the new North Kent lone platform currently under construction.

The
idiocy which left the eastbound carriageway open to any driver who might be
confused by signs which said go left or right, the former leading to a
cul-de-sac, has been given some attention and is now blocked off.

The generator which was blocking the safest route for pedestrians has been
removed but they are still directed into the road to put them at maximum risk.

This may be an attempt to give the absent workforce some protection from passing
traffic but if that is the case one might ask why pedestrians are being used as a human shield.

The work remains wholly on the footpath, there has been no need for a week of traffic holdups.

In the morning when commuters are being delivered by car to the railway station
where parking spaces are at a premium the traffic queues all the way from the
station back to the lower section of Knee Hil, blocking east west (and west east) traffic totally.

Presumably it is asking too much to expect those given permission by Bexley council to
block our roads to do so thoughtfully or for Bexley council to monitor the situation?

But perhaps they did and that is why the cones in Photo 2 have been put in place.

Lesnes AbbeyThere
have been reports that the removal of a hedge in Lesnes Abbey park has allowed
yesterday’s heavy rain to wash mud on to the footpaths.

I went to have a look and sure enough there is potentially dangerous mud to be
found in several places.

However the hedge removal may not be a significant factor. Most of the old hedge
line shows no sign of the passage of mud,
a short length may do.

Mud has always been washed down the hill after exceptionally heavy rain. On
rare occasions Abbey Road itself has been affected.

Compost and crooksWho
apart from local authorities and maybe the odd monopoly nationalised industry thinks it is
reasonable to take customers’ money and deny them any change?

I’ve seen railway company (and TfL) ticket machines which put up a NO CHANGE
message when they run out of coins but deliberate and persistent extortion would appear to be practised only by local councils.

If there is a scam available you can be pretty sure that Bexley council will be
at the head of the queue to use it.

Bexley council’s off and on street parking ticket machines don’t give change. Teresa O’Neill OBE (Overcharge Betray Extort) is
in effect proudly proclaiming that she runs her council as if she was Dick Turpin.
The head of a council comprised of crooks so unprincipled that they no longer recognise their own dishonesty.

Dishonesty is in the very DNA of Bexley’s Conservative council.

Have you seen what they are geared up to do when the bin tax kicks in in a month’s time?

If you paid for a garden waste sack in the expectation
that in return for the money paid, Bexley council would honour its part of the
contract and take your waste away. Think again.

You might expect it to do so but you’d not be accounting for the fraudulent ambitions of Bexley council.

They have not changed their position since making the Twitter announcement yesterday. Someone should take the ruling
crooks to the Small Claims Court.

Some might prefer the justice meted out to the real Dick Turpin.

CrossrailFor
those who follow the project’s progress there is a new photo feature on
the weekend’s track laying operation behind Fendyke Road. In due course
the track will be nudged in a southerly direction to line up with the new platform.

The old footbridge reopened this morning - originally scheduled for Thursday -
something I discovered only after walking from the south to the north side of
the track via Harrow Manorway. A mile, maybe more.

This is another multi-subject blog and due to time constraints
it has appeared in dribs and drabs throughout the day. I think it may be complete now.

Lesnes AbbeyTen days ago BiB referred to the delays
affecting the creation of a new visitor centre at Lesnes Abbey. It was not possible to say much
at the time because valuable artefacts had been found on the site and if the details had become known they
would have attracted thieves and treasure hunters. However the historical
remains have now been safeguarded and the truth can be told.

Fortunately I do not have to repeat it here because Bexley council has
distributed another Press Release,
read a copy here.

It wasn’t just a dead horse that had been found, but human graves and remains too.

Crossrail. Bostall Manorway footbridgeAs already noted, the new footbridge over the railway at the end of Bostall
Manorway was installed at the weekend. The old one will be returned to service
on Thursday and the new one will be brought into use once everything is
thoroughly checked. Then the old one will be demolished.

The new bridge did not come totally without problems. Balfour Beatty, Network
Rail’s primary contractor at first said it would be lifted into place late on
Saturday evening but the £25,000 a day crane didn’t get to lift it until around
5 p.m. Sunday. After waiting something like 20 hours to see it fly, it was
lowered into place, a perfect fit in just 20 minutes.

The delay appeared to be connected with the joining of the two halves, it was
receiving constant attention in that area throughout Saturday night and
Sunday and any damage to the paintwork was instantly remedied with a paint brush.

The manufacturers’ team (DMG
Steelworkers) from Wigan must have been exhausted. Meanwhile
the various contractors’ men necessarily stood around doing not a lot.

As usual Balfour Beatty’s staff and Network Rail’s senior managers on site were
very helpful and I learned a few more interesting facts about the project.

Adverts
An acceptable compromise has been reached with the code to display adverts.
You have probably not noticed but blogs can be displayed in four different
formats (and each of them in seven text size/ page width variants) and it will be possible to show
either one or two adverts (or none) independently in each of the four blog formats.

In typical fashion one of the two business owners who made the request that provoked
adverts is now saying he is not ready, and the other one has not responded to email.
Not a good sign.

In the meantime two have been invented for demonstration purposes.

Councillor Rob Leitch, Sidcup’s garden guru
I suppose that coming across so many Bexley Conservatives who are clearly in
politics mainly to line their own pockets or perhaps for self-aggrandisement there
may be a danger that I over-react if I come across one who clearly hasn’t read
the Teresa O’Neill OBE (Oppress Bully Enforce) rule-book on how to be a disciplined disciple of the Great Dictator.

Right
from the outset I have felt that Rob Leitch’s initiative to save Sidcup’s Walled Garden from
the ravages of
Bexley council’s cuts was a magnificent idea and deserved widespread support.

He seems to be getting some from local businesses digging into their pockets and residents are digging into
the soil, but more of both would be welcomed. If you
can lend a hand you should
let Rob know.

I don’t seem to have the stamina for long gardening sessions any more so I asked
Rob when I last met him if he had a bank account for donations. He promised to
let me know when it was up and running.

It is now and it is The Sidcup Garden Project, Bank Sort Code 40-42-01,
Account Number 51605674.

I think I will send him a few bob.

Electrifying stupidity
A month ago Abbey Wood suffered ten days of traffic disruption while UK Power
Networks dug a hole in Abbey Road at the foot of Knee Hill and installed a three
way traffic control system. I took some photos but it didn't justify a blog
being no more than one of life’s annoyances that must be tolerated. The situation
offered no alternative solution.

Last Friday UK Power Networks returned to dig up the other side of the road
except that it wasn’t the road they dug up it was the central section of a wide footpath.

There was no real reason to close the eastbound carriageway and the adjacent
pedestrian crossing but they did and justified it by dumping a single
wheelbarrow load of dirt in the gutter and diverting pedestrians into the road.

There was plenty of room to divert pedestrians around the other side of the hole
but they carefully blocked that by dumping their compressor in the way. It could
have gone almost anywhere.

Throughout the weekend there were traffic queues as I learned to my cost while
making eleven visits to Mottisfont Road to see the
railway bridge replacement work. After the first two trips on foot I decided that the car was a more sensible option.

Today
there is some work going on in Abbey Road but the situation is basically
unchanged. A heap of dirt in the road and traffic hold ups. I suppose it could
be argued that the heap of dirt offers some protection to the workers but that
doesn’t explain Friday Saturday and Sunday.

For some reason the eastbound carriageway seen in Photo 2 has not been blocked off and as
traffic from Knee Hill has to be allowed to go straight ahead there is nothing
to stop drivers unfamiliar with the territory going up a cul-de-sac.

I wonder if Bexley council has any staff left who might monitor the abuse inflicted on the
borough by utility companies?

While speaking of electricity companies and amoeba-like brain capacities may I mention
Scottish Power again?

Last month they raised my Direct Debit from £71 to £76 without any prior
notification. They gave me £25 in compensation. Today they announced that my
Direct Debit has been increased to £104.

Scottish Power’s website contains a wealth of information if you can find it. A
nice graph tells me that my consumption has been steadily falling - gas and
electricity (†) - all year and that my credit currently stands at £127
even though the latest consumption figures have been applied but not the
corresponding payment. Yet they have whacked up the Direct Debit by very nearly 50%.

As I said, the brain power of an amoeba.

† Probably because I used to make it a rule to quit Bonkers by 19:15 each day and
watch a DVD on a large plasma screen. It rarely goes on nowadays and it can be a
bit greedy with the electricity!

This weekend has seen a huge amount of Crossrail activity in and around Abbey Wood Station.

At the last Crossrail Liaison Panel meeting
the Network Rail Project manager said that Felixstowe Road would be restored to two way working by the end of July, Gayton Road
would be back to normal by the end of September. The Bostall Manorway bridge would be installed in August
and new track would be put in place around the station during September and
October. Except that Felixstowe Road is still far from finished the forecast
would appear to have been a good one.

The
major undertakings today and yesterday were the installation of the new
footbridge at Bostall Manorway and the replacement of the London bound North
Kent line behind Fendyke Road.

The bridge was eventually installed after innumerable delays at 5 p.m. today.
Messages from useful on site contacts had at first been predicting 9 p.m.
Saturday followed by many others specifying progressively later times. I made
ten abortive trips before the eleventh brought forth the desired photos of a
bridge dangling from an enormous crane.

The bridge is 42 metres long and weighs 38 tonnes. It was fabricated more than a year ago by
DMG Steelworkers in Wigan and stored in Skelmersdale from where it was
transferred to Dartford a few days ago from where it could be summoned quickly
when required.

The track replacement east of the station is causing some consternation among
local residents as it has been placed in exactly the same position as the old
North Kent line. The expectation from those who lost gardens and sheds to
Crossrail was that the line would be slewed to the south.

The explanation is simple and sensible. When the time comes to align the new
track to the new London bound platform it will be relatively easy to nudge it
over, much quicker than laying new track at that stage on what would already be
a very busy weekend. And nudging old track would run the risk of breaking it.

The third activity, and the one pictured here, was a modification to the central
staircase of the station footbridge. I understand it is a minor redesign to
improve access to the new platform and according to my informant will be noticed
by tomorrow’s commuters.

With more than 160 photographs to chose from and a lack of inclination to do so
following eleven tiring visits to Mottisfont Road (site of the new bridge) the
photo feature is not going to appear until tomorrow.

If all goes according to plan, Bexley council’s Chief Executive will be selected for a similar post
in Tower Hamlets on Wednesday evening. Their Appointments Sub-Committee has
selected him from a short list of four.
Mr. Michael Barnbrook is a well known thorn in Bexley council’s side who has had a hand in
bringing down 17 MPs for various abuses, most recently he was the principal complainant against
former MP Denis MacShane who was jailed for six months for the offence of false accounting.

Mick Barnbrook is a bit of a stickler when it comes to honesty in public life
and he thought it unlikely that Will Tuckley would have informed the Commissioners
appointed to run Tower Hamlet’s discredited council, that his misconduct in Bexley
was currently being considered by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Will Tuckley is something of an expert when it comes to getting Bexley
councillors off of criminal charges and accusing their victims of crime instead.
He suggested to his police friends
that I was charged with the crime that was
committed on councillor Peter Craske’s phone line and
met with the CPS to ensure
that Craske wasn’t.

If you want a councillor’s crime concealed and the complainant stitched up with false Press
Releases and manufactured allegations, Will Tuckley is your man, and Tower
Hamlets council is no stranger to crime.

So what has Mick Barnbrook gone and done about it?

He’s only sent chapter and verse about Tuckley to the Commissioners who run Tower Hamlets.

And what is likely to be the end result of that? The Commissioners will not want
to be embarrassed by their new Chief Executive going to jail - as Greenwich
Police said he might - so they will nobble the CPS won’t they? And who is best
placed to tell them how to nobble the CPS? Why, it’s Will Tuckley himself. What
could be neater?

Thanks Mick, I know that it is right to bring all the facts out into the open
and that you told me what you had in mind before sending the email,
but we can now be pretty sure of the basis on which Will Tuckley and his crooked
pals will have their crimes overlooked.

Pursuing them will be deemed to be not in the Public Interest. We know some excuse has
to be found but Mick has probably provided one on a silver platter. If this prediction
comes to pass it will at last be obvious to all that corruption exists at every level
of public life and not just in Bexley.

This is what Mick wrote, he has already received an acknowledgment.

Dear Commissioners,

I understand that you have recommended the appointment of Mr William Tuckley,
Chief Executive of Bexley Council, as the new Chief Executive of Tower Hamlets
Council.

I do not know if Mr Tuckley made the Appointments Sub Committee aware of the
fact, when he was interviewed for the position of Chief Executive, that he is
currently the subject of an allegation to the Metropolitan Police, of Misconduct
in Public Office, made by myself and three other members of the public.

In addition to Mr Tuckley, three former Bexley Police Borough Commanders (Chief
Superintendents Olisa, Ayling and Stringer, the latter, until recently, being
the Borough Commander of Tower Hamlets Police), one Chief Inspector and two
police constables, are also being investigated by both Plumstead Police
Criminal Investigation Department and the Metropolitan Police Department of
Professional Standards, for a variety of offences, including Misconduct in
Public Office, Perverting the Course of Justice and Gross Misconduct, as a
result of the corrupt relationship between Bexleyheath Police and Bexley
Council, whilst Mr Tuckley was Chief Executive.

The allegation made against Mr Tuckley was judged by Detective Sergeant Xxxxxxxxxx of
Plumstead Police CID, the investigating officer, to be “potentially life
changing” and following a lengthy investigation, he recently informed me that he
has submitted the case file to the Crown Prosecution Service for their decision.

It would be prudent, in my opinion, to defer the appointment of Mr Tuckley,
until after the Crown Prosecution Service has reached a decision.

To appoint Mr Tuckley and for the Crown Prosecution to then authorise him to be
interviewed and face the possibility of a serious criminal charge, would cause
Tower Hamlets Council even more embarrassment than that only recently suffered.

I was the complainant to the Metropolitan Police of an allegation of
fraud against Mr Ian Clement, former Leader of Bexley Council, whilst he was a
Deputy Mayor of London.

As a result of my allegation, Mr Clement was convicted of fraud and
sentenced to a suspended term of imprisonment.

Following his conviction, Bexley Council held their own internal investigation
into the use, by Mr Clement, of his corporate credit card, whilst he was Leader
of Bexley Council.

Despite overwhelming evidence, contained in the final report of their
investigation, that Mr Clement had committed fraud on at least four occasions,
Bexley Council made the decision not to report the matter to police. Mr Tuckley
was Chief Executive at the time.

If I can assist you with any further information, please contact me on mobile 077xxxxxxxx.

Please acknowledge receipt of this correspondence in accordance with Tower Hamlets' protocol.

Yours faithfully,

Michael Barnbrook, Inspector, Metropolitan Police (Retired)

As a correspondent said to me after the news broke;
“He couldn’t even manage Bexley, how on earth he thinks he can run Tower Hamlets
is beyond me. Bexley is hardly a training ground for such a multi-cultural
place”. But we got rid of him. Compare the state of Bexley in 2015 with 2008
when ditched his appointment in Croydon. A few cobblestones in a few high
streets. Everything else has taken a backwards turn.

Requests for BiB to carry advertisements are not uncommon and they have been routinely rejected, however twice recently the requests have come from local companies. I feel
this may be more acceptable and during the past week have tried to add the
necessary code. You may have seen an ‘advert’ for the Old Farm Park campaign
briefly appear and disappear while I have attempted to overcome far more
technical problems than I had imagined possible.

Among them is that the available space varies according to the chosen viewing
mode and disappears entirely in Mobile mode.

There were also relatively minor but nonetheless annoying cosmetic variations
between browsers despite specifying every dimension absolutely. The problem
appears to be caused by differences in the way fonts are rendered for the
central page header text and therefore insurmountable. The aim was to align the
bottom of the advert image with the base of the central Guidance Panel but
despite specifying everything at pixel level the browsers are all slightly
different; near enough is going to have to do.

There is still some work to be done to allow different adverts on different
pages but the basics are now in place.

This is all by way of an excuse for not having provided the planned Part 2 blog for
today, the time just got frittered away poring over php code and CSS files. In all probability
a proper blog will appear tomorrow (Saturday) so long as I do not get
sidetracked by technical issues again and Crossrail doesn’t take all day to
deliver their promised crane to Bostall Manorway.

There is incidentally no intention to charge for the advertisement panels, it
will simply be a free service to anyone who cheekily asks to be included - as
two already have.

A year ago Bexley police announced that it was going to equip its
officers with Body Worn Video cameras. Below is an extract from the letter of
explanation sent by Chief Superintendent Peter Ayling to the borough’s Great and
the Good. Click to view the source letter.I
don’t think the adoption of Body Worn Video by Bexley police was covered on BiB
although I must have known of it because I remember thinking that the police
would quickly switch their cameras off whenever they needed to protect
themselves from complaint. However Hugh Neal covered the subject fully on
the Maggot Sandwich im May 2014.

As an IT professional, Hugh would have been interested in how the video was
stored. On a Met Police Server according to CS Peter Ayling.

Now it transpires that Sky News has discovered that this is far from the truth.

Hugh will no doubt be telling us how he came to be the final piece in the jigsaw
which completed the Sky News story when he returns with his blog on Sunday.

Crossrail casualty?
It looks as though the total absence of parking spaces outside the shops in
Felixstowe Road (Photo 5) for several months past - thanks to Crossrail - and the opening
of Sainsbury’s nearby (Photos 3 and 4) has taken its toll on Costcutter.

The three shop fronts shown (Photo 6) were all Costcutter until very recently.

The middle of the three
boasts a website. You may check it out now but it is not really worth the effort at the moment.

Chief
Superintendent Dave Stringer was in charge of Bexley’s police when I was told there was
no
chance of tracing the source of the internet obscenities directed against Elwyn Bryant and me in 2011.
(†) The obscene blog was eventually traced to councillor Peter Craske’s phone line.

Dave Stringer left Bexley and went to Tower Hamlets.

Acting Superintendent Tony Gowen was the police officer who arranged
a meeting with
Will Tuckley and the Crown Prosecution Service “"to resolve the [Peter Craske’s]
situation”, or in other words find a way of getting Craske off a Misconduct in Public Office charge.

Tony Gowen left Bexley and went to Tower Hamlets.

Chief Executive Will Tuckley is the man who refused to take the word of ten
people who made statements to the effect that councillor
Cheryl Bacon is one big
liar, preferring to take the totally unsupported word of the aforesaid big liar.

Will Tuckley is to leave Bexley and go to Tower Hamlets.

Tower Hamlets is by general consent the most corrupt council in London, if not
the country. Tower Hamlets is in dire need of a man who can shield it from the
consequences of its criminal activities and preferably one with a proven track
record in that department.

When completing his job application did Mr. Tuckley reveal the charge of
Misconduct in Public Office currently under consideration by the Crown
Prosecution Service?

Please excuse my cynicism but his transfer must surely mean he is pretty confident
that political interference will resolve his situation, just as it did Peter Craske’s.

In 2013
the Evening Standard reported that Will Tuckley was on a £244,897 salary
package. His opposite number at Tower Hamlets was on £104,015. How does that work?

† Following a complaint by myself and my MP
he later agreed to review the decision.
Chief Superintendent Stringer is now the Met’s Head of Community Engagement. He was recently
quoted in the Evening Standard as saying “I don’t see abuse as free speech.
It’s criminal and will be treated as such”. Not if a politician is responsible for it presumably.

Council leader Teresa O’Neill OBE (Overpaid Bureaucrat Exits) said…

Dear Councillors and Bexley Colleagues,

I am writing to let you know that Will Tuckley is expected to be appointed as
Chief Executive of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets at its Extraordinary
Council Meeting on 26th August and will, subject to confirmation of the
appointment at that meeting, be resigning from his role in Bexley.

Will has been the Chief Executive since March 2008. During that time the Council
has faced significant challenges but made some significant improvements for
residents and their quality of life. These achievements include:
· Successful regeneration and
improvements in Crayford, Slade Green and Bexleyheath with further substantial
investment planned for Thamesmead, Abbey Wood and Erith.
· Modernisation and improvements in
the way residents access services and higher customer satisfaction ratings from
Bexley residents.
· Improved performance across all of
Bexley’s schools with better results for pupils.
· The successful completion of
Strategy 2014 which delivered in the region of £61m of expenditure reductions,
much of it by streamlining the Council’s management and delivering efficiencies.
· The successful completion of the
Bexley First Project which saw the Council move into modern, efficient offices
and deliver reductions in running costs.
· Delivering services within the
overall budget and rebuilding the Council’s financial reserves.
· Developing a Strategy for Growth
that will bring significant benefits to the borough and its residents.
· Children’s Services continue to
improve following the lifting of the Improvement Notice.

We wish Will every success in his new role and thank him for his considerable
contribution to ensuring that Bexley’s residents receive excellent services from
the Council and its partners. Will leaves the Council with a strong and
ambitious management team and with clear strategies in place to address the
considerable financial and other challenges facing local government and Bexley
in particular.

I shall advise you shortly of the arrangements to ensure a smooth transition
pending the appointment of a new Chief Executive.

It is scraping the news barrel somewhat
to emulate Anna Firth and go hunting for rubbish but having been tipped off by
a resident of Kingswood Avenue in Belvedere it represented a fairly easy option.

The report said
there was a complete Wendy House dumped in the woods behind Elstree Gardens. That’s the woods a couple of hundred yards east of
the Lesnes Abbey playground which was torched on 9th June.

It was said Bexley council had been notified but they claimed to be too busy to collect it.

The Wendy House was not the only heap of rubbish in the area but the only piece
which was clearly in the council owned woods. The rest was on the unmade road and
the ownership of that is unknown to me.

I am reluctant to publish too much news relating to specific cases of the abuse
carried out by Bexley’s Social Services against families and their children but
I can reveal that the Local Government Ombudsman recently instructed Bexley’s
Director of Children’s Services Jackie Tiotto to issue an “unreserved apology”
to a mother who has been treated in an appalling fashion by Bexley council. When
the case reaches its conclusion I am expecting to be able to report rather more.

Jackie Tiotto was appointed to her post after this particular abuse was authorised by Bexley council.

Crossrail
For the railway enthusiasts there are
a few more photos
of the track laying train and locomotive at work after being parked in Crossrail’s Plumstead sidings since the weekend.

The Old Farm Park campaigners are throwing everything they can into the
battle to save it from the developer’s bulldozers. They have held public meetings
and presented petitions, so far without effect, and set up
an active website. Not content with that they have
a subsidiary news website and they have two Conservative councillors behind
them. Newcomer Rob Leitch who has managed to get hold of Bexley council’s so called
Site Appraisal and June Slaughter with nearly 40 years experience behind her who delivered
a devastating attack
on the council’s proposals at the last cabinet meeting.

The Site Appraisal is remarkable mainly for its brevity and its assertion that
there is “no known flooding within the Old Farm Avenue site”.

It was severely flooded only last week.

An Appraisal, devoid of any financial information does not in practice provide
much in the way of useful information and the campaigners are now putting all their
effort behind getting people to go through
the consultation process.

I’ve watched these consultation charades far too often before and in my opinion nothing anyone does
now will make one bit of difference. It will merely illustrate yet again that a Teresa O’Neill led
council will take not a blind bit of notice of any consultation response.

Strong
words, and I am no fan of selling off the family silver, but look at the practicalities. Is it possible for Teresa O’Neill to
backtrack now? Would she allow councillor June Slaughter who embarrassed her so
much at the cabinet meeting to beat her into submission?

It is more than six months since councillor Alex Sawyer (then cabinet
member, now deputy leader) publicly
announced the second list of parks for sale and it had been secret for a
couple of months before that. These schemes have a very long gestation period.

The consultation runs until 18th September and the first council meeting after
that when the subject can be debated is on 4th November. There isn’t another one
until the budget is set in March 2016.

Realistically, there is only that one opportunity for the full council to debate
and approve the sale of the parks before the March budget setting meeting. It’s
the 4th November Full Council.

Consider what would happen if the proposal to sell the parks was thrown out. By
4th November the plan would have been a year in the making. Cabinet member
Craske studiously avoided coming up with a substitute sale site after Old Manor Way was let off the hook.
Director Paul Moore confirmed there is no Plan B. That is
not only because there isn’t one but also because there is no need for one.
Selling Old Manor
Way was never a serious proposition. No one seriously believes that the council
didn’t know the site was full of holes and mine shafts and covenants. It was always
the Aunt Sally to be graciously
sacrificed to make Bexley council look better than it is.

More importantly, there is no need for a Plan B because nothing will deflect
Bexley council from its ambitions.

There simply is no time to change direction. Old Farm Park is doomed. Without its sale or a
Plan B a major part of the budget strategy falls apart and Teresa O’Neill OBE (Oldfarm
Bulldozers Expected) would be utterly discredited. She would lose her place as leader next
year, which is the one very good reason to fight the sell off. Anything that brings her demise closer
to reality must be worth doing.

Complete the petition anyway, when it happens you will be able to claim a small
part in Teresa O’Neill’s downfall.

Gayton Road is rearranged and the station site is progressing. As may be seen, the platforms are going to be very wide. The
southern edge of the North Kent London bound and the centre support wall are visible on Photo 2.
Track work at Plumstead has allowed a diesel locomotive to get on site.More Crossrail related blogs.

Someone
with close connections to Bexley council emailed overnight to shed a little light on the apparent
lack of progress
at Lesnes Abbey and whilst I was wondering if the information could be
validated, Lesnes Abbey councillor Danny Hackett fortuitously Tweeted about the
new Visitor Centre. It provided the perfect excuse to press him for a few
answers. Were any of the rumours true?

It would appear that they are. All of them!

The project is running at least three months late and the planned 31st August
opening date has been quietly forgotten. Early 2016 if you are lucky.

The gossip that circulated locally was well founded. The story about the horse
skeleton; true! A new bit of boundary wall discovered? True again.

The steel framework is coming later than originally expected but not because it was
forgotten, the design had to be changed for reasons which could not reasonably be foreseen.
The frame is not now expected to be delivered much before the end of September.

I can see the Abbey about 200 metres from where I am typing these words and the close
proximity drives home the fact that Bexley council is content to leave a Grade I Scheduled
Ancient Monument with minimal security for five days a week, 9-5, and
nothing whatsoever overnight or at weekends and bank holidays.

The neglect is scandalous.

As a result people trample all over the walls, light fires, illegally use metal
detectors and break in to contractors’ huts and vehicles.

But why is Bexley council saying nothing publicly about their failure to stick to the
schedule? Danny Hackett was unusually reticent about that but if I am any good at all
at reading between the lines he is right to be so. Bexley council is doing what it does
best, keeping things secret, but they have their reasons and the Visitor Centre
will be all the better for it.

Whether there will be any specialist staff left to run the show in 2016 is another
matter entirely. The Project Manager is not the only loss, but perhaps staff will
be consoled by the fact that not every custodian of a Grade 1 listed building will leave it to
the tender mercies of marauding vandals. Perhaps they will find a more responsible employer.

The lack of progress on
building the new Lesnes Abbey visitor centre provoked
a small scale response from Bonkers’ readers. As the brochure (see extract below)
says, construction should have commenced months ago and the opening date might
have passed by now. Instead the only thing to see is a hole in the ground.

There is a similar theme running through the feedback but without evidence it must
necessarily be regarded as hearsay.

One
correspondent felt sure that the delay was occasioned by the discovery of
historical artefacts on the site which would confirm in general terms
the rumour which circulated locally
a couple of months ago.

However another correspondent who has attended all the Lesnes Abbey related meetings both at the abbey and the Civic Offices is adamant that Bexley council
has refused to answer all pertinent questions and given no clue to the seven month standstill.
Instead it promised to make an announcement one day. But that has been
the case for a long time now.

If historical artefacts had been found one might ask why no one has been
seen on site digging with a teaspoon of something, but except perhaps for one
day in June no one looking like an archeologist has ever been seen there - and I pass
by pretty much every day.

Since Bexley council cannot be relied upon to tell the truth maybe one of their groundsmen
would be a better source of information. What did the man at the coal face have to say?

Yes there was an artefact, a bit more wall showed up but far more serious is
that someone forgot to order the building’s steel frame and it is taking a long
time to manufacture. Meanwhile everything is at a standstill and the (ex)
project manager no longer works for Bexley council.

I do not know for certain if that is any more truthful than what my correspondents
have been told by Bexley council but it sounds far more plausible to me.

In between entertaining his grandson on holidays, Michael Barnbrook has found time to
pursue Bexley council on a number of matters. One is the Working Party that is
negotiating
with the Boundaries Commission over the number of councillors to
represent Bexley residents from 2018. Bexley council thinks that 45 would be
adequate, the Boundaries Commission put the cat among the pigeons by suggesting 21.

The General Purposes Committee set up a sub-committee
but in order to keep the public out called it an ad-hoc Working Group. It was an
obvious ruse that Bexley council has used before and Mr. Barnbrook
considered it to be illegal. My view was that it couldn’t be illegal in the criminal sense,
as when councillor Cheryl Bacon decided to hold
a scrutiny meeting in ‘Closed
Session’ for example, because it was, so far as the Constitution is concerned, no different
to discussing policy over a pint in the nearest pub. The Constitution has
nothing to say about pubs or Working Parties so there are no rules to break. A Working
Party is simply a device to exclude the public and subvert democracy.

As Mr. Barnbrook’s correspondence has developed, this assessment of the
situation has proved to be broadly correct.

However he has discovered a few things. The Working Party consists of
councillors Chris Beazley (UKIP), Alan Deadman and Seán Newman (Labour), Rob
Leitch and Joe Pollard (Conservative) and three members of the cabinet. Peter
Craske, Don Massey and Teresa O’Neill.

Michael formally questioned the use of an informal Working Party instead of a legally
constituted Sub-Committee and as you might expect been rebuffed at every stage.

The official answer is that there is “no provision in legislation that precludes
such a group being established” and a Working Group “allows a free and frank
exchange of views … that would be inhibited in a more formal setting”. What
could be more inhibiting than three of the most powerful people on the council being present?

“The council has been open and transparent in its approach.” The delusionist is
Mr. Nick Hollier, Director of Human Resources.

Mr. Barnbrook takes the not unreasonable view that if the Constitution doesn’t
allow for a procedure then such a procedure cannot be used. That would be the
approach if an opposition councillor spoke out of turn at a council meeting.

I have been trying to find out how often the Working Party trick has been used
but talkative councillors with long memories are in short supply. One was able
to refer back to 1999 when a Working Party was established but nothing more
recent. It was accompanied by the intriguing comment that as Bexley’s Constitution has nothing to say about
Working Parties they rely on the custom and practice at other councils. Nothing
can be illegal when the council is lawless.

Incidentally, while digging into the boundaries situation in Bexley,
I stumbled across this. The colour of Bexley in 1995, one, two and three
councillor wards before the borough became a one woman dictatorship.

Bexley council was supposed to start
Phase II of the Broadway regeneration on
Monday 10th. It extends the scheme which saw Broadway turned into a vehicular
free for all from Trinity Place past Lion Road towards Devonshire Road where the footpath is currently being
carved up with the mandatory temporary traffic lights in place.

Bexleyheath is in chaos again, would you recognise it if it were any other way?

Today there were queues from Crook Log to Christchurch and along Albion Road as far as the Townley Road roundabout.
There will be no respite until March.

The lying Cheryl Bacon
It was almost inevitable that sooner or later the
excellent work done by
Greenwich police to assemble a case against Will Tuckley, Lynn Tyler and Cheryl
Bacon would grind to a halt under political pressure. I’m not sure if that has
happened yet but the relationship between the police and the victims of
Bexley council’s crime appears to have changed.

During the earlier part of this year update reports were regular and positive
but I was half promised more for 25th May, 17th July and 7th August but nothing
has been forthcoming. Mr. Barnbrook made an enquiry by telephone last week and
was told that the case has been presented to the Crown Prosecution Service but
the flow of friendly correspondence appears to have stopped.

Bexley’s dishonest parking department
This is another long drawn out saga. It is certain that Bexley’s parking
department considers itself above the law; the Local Government Ombudsman has
told them to stop it, Bexley council’s legal department has told them to stop
it, and Grant Thornton, Bexley council’s auditors have released a single copy of
Bexley council’s own damning assessment of the situation.

The fact that Bexley’s parking department operates with a total disregard for
the law is not in doubt. Unfortunately there are legal constraints on going into
detail. That can only be overcome if there is an outbreak of honesty at Bexley
council - and that is never going to happen - or the council is forced to release a copy under
Freedom of Information legislation.

That path is about to enter Stage 3. The original request was refused and the
new Finance Director Alison Griffin has shown her disdain for honesty and
transparency by refusing the review request too. The Information
Commissioner’s Office is the next port of call.

Axe to fall on CCTV?
There is bound to be an adverse response to Bexley council’s
plan to stop actively
monitoring CCTV and in the process save taxpayers £225,000 a year. It’s
ironic that it was councillor Peter Craske in his Public Realm cabinet role who was
trumpeting the arrival of CCTV in Bexley and Crayford only four years ago. and
now it is Peter Craske as cabinet member for Community Safety who thinks it is
a public service that can be degraded with not too many consequences.

Bexley’s CCTV system proved useful when there was a senseless murder in the
Broadway and it proved useful to a dishonest council when it trained a camera on an employee’s house
as part of one of their spiteful victimisation schemes.

I’ve seen the case file and several well known Bexley names made up a cover story which was obviously
false to anyone who knew how the system was operated and interconnected. I spent weeks studying
the pile of paper and the technical documentation included in a dismissal file only for the employee concerned to get cold feet about publishing it. Shame.

The existence of two groups is no great secret but there appears to be no
communication between the two, and from one no communication at all. One might
think a common goal would be an incentive for cooperation but there appears to be none.

Green Chain Walk
Site workers have attributed the
three month delay to the reopening
of the Yarnton Way to Southmere Lake section of the Green Chain to constant vandalism.
As soon as one new feature is erected it is wrecked. Contractors’ vehicles have
been both damaged and driven over fences etc. some of which have disappeared entirely.

Gallions/Peabody have expressed the hope that the path will be reopened before
the end of August, after which the Lesnes Abbey section will be next for
attention. Given the daily problems one might wonder why they bother.

Now I have had to deal with Social Services myself, not Bexley’s but Newham’s. What a
useless shower they are.

It concerns my 95 year old aunt who broke a hip and a wrist three months ago
today. The NHS care was first rate and she made a remarkable recovery. She could
have been released from hospital nearly a week earlier except that the request for a
care package to be put in place sat in someone’s In Tray for almost a week.
When a date was eventually promised and short term 24 hour family cover was arranged, Social
Services let things slip for another 24 hours causing considerable inconvenience.

The care package proved to be inappropriate, in part because my aunt always
refuses help and partly because the care workers receive no concessions on
parking, they hover by the open front door to guard against a £65 fine. Very nice they are but
all they can do is say hello and run.

Gradually the constant visitors, sometimes arriving past an old lady’s bedtime,
became not just inappropriate but a definite nuisance causing distress to the 95 year old.

I have been in touch with two people in Newham’s Social Services department. One
was mainly interested in getting my aunt to pay £198 a week for care she didn’t
need. We arranged to meet one day last week but such is Newham Social Services
shortcoming in the party and breweries department they couldn’t make a proper appointment.

I asked for an email on the preceding day but the best they could offer was a
phone call as they left their office. Thanks to the lack of a river crossing East Ham is an hour away from Bexley.

I received no notification by email or telephone but the Newham official visited
my aunt on Thursday morning, the day of the tube strike. I have no idea what may have been achieved
because all the bank statements etc. are with me and Newham knew that.

The second Social Worker simply ignored me for two weeks until I said on Monday I would pass
the correspondence to the Newham MP, Stephen Timms. That provoked an instant
response by email and telephone and a meeting was arranged at my aunt’s house for the following
afternoon (yesterday). Luckily my aunt’s GP agreed to be there too and I was keen to see if
my assessment that my aunt was entirely back to normal would be supported by two professionals.

The Social Worker failed to show up despite my telephoned reminder. Neither has
there been any explanation as to why not today. Obviously a totally useless individual.

Fortunately the GP shared my opinion and has offered to do battle on my behalf.

Is there any such thing as a responsible and reliable social worker? Not in
Newham obviously but is Bexley any better?

Lesnes Abbey currently symbolises the whole of Bexley council, they have
launched some consultations and gone away on their holidays.

By some
estimates the new Lesnes Abbey visitor centre should have opened last month but
today the site is again deserted and looks not a lot different from what it did
at the
beginning of January. Seven whole months of delay. Why?
No one seems to know.

The only activity to report is by campaigners against budget cuts. The Splash
Park is being supported by a group calling themselves Friends of Belvedere
Heritage and the Old Farm Park group is to hold another meeting tomorrow evening.

The first weekend Crossrail update of the month and it looks like the Gayton Road utility
diversion programme is approaching completion. Further west
the final Crossrail to North Kent track connection will soon be made in Plumstead.
There will be trains from Abbey Wood next weekend and again on 29th/30th August
but after that consecutive closures through to mid-October. Big changes are afoot.

Bexley council justifies its proposed sale of parks and open spaces by claiming that
the cash raised will allow the rest to be properly maintained and not be blighted by
knee high grass as
deputy council leader Alex Sawyer said parks across the Greenwich border are at the last council
meeting, but if the story about Greenwich’s parks is true it would be the pot calling the kettle black.

Sidcup’s walled garden has been left untended all year, something
first noted in
these pages three months ago. However with the alacrity of youth councillor Rob
Leitch (Conservative, Sidcup) has organised a rescue party; as if
upsetting the leadership
with his Old Farm Park speech a couple of weeks ago wasn’t enough for him.
Working directly with and for the community while his party bosses creep off in
the other direction hoping no one will notice is unlikely to do a lot for his popularity with the OBE.
(Obergruppenführer Begrudges Enterprise.)
When Rob first burst on to the scene just over a year ago fellow Sidcup councillor June Slaughter
suggested I should be prepared to be impressed and probably I was too quick off
the mark with my comments about his early enthusiasm for
a few granite benches
and pretty shop fronts in Sidcup High Street. Once councillor Leitch found his feet in the
chamber it become very apparent that June was absolutely right.

Councillor Leitch has not only quickly recruited a team of volunteer gardeners but
obtained sponsorship from local businesses with
Ruxley Manor Garden Centre additionally providing the
horticultural expertise. I understand that the rates are £350 for each of the
major flower beds for two years which seems very reasonable to me.

Further donations are always welcome of course and if Rob can be persuaded to
release his new charity bank account details I’ll let you know. In fact if he
fails to get sponsorship for all of the available plots I think I’ll sponsor one
myself. Thorny topiary formed to the letters BiB surrounded by
something poisonous sounds about right to me.
As usual, click on any of the thumbnail images to enlarge them.

I
asked Lesnes Abbey ward councillor Danny Hackett what he was
Twittering on about
when he said that the Abbey playground appeared to have suffered additional
damage because as an irregular visitor I didn’t see any. Danny might be more on the ball.

Councillor Hackett was able to say that the sandbags were covering a small trampoline which
had been slashed and the tape around one of the slide platforms was new
and put there because it has been seriously cracked.

While I was on site yesterday morning it was being checked over by one of the
park maintenance contractor’s men. He was not optimistic for the slide’s future while he
attended to a damaged perimeter fence.

Danny said that yesterday’s attack on the temporary Heras fence did not simply tip it over
but caused serious damage, which I had noticed. It was at least the third
attack he knew of and it was likely to be reinforced soon.

I can’t help feeling that having got away with
the arson attack the culprits may
be seeing the minimally secured park as a challenge. For me it is only
three minutes walk away and with the patio door left open on a warm evening the
gangs swarming around Lesnes Abbey are not difficult to hear. Reports from staff
there say it too was fire damaged a few days ago.

The promised survey tent made
its appearance in Wilton Road today and I dropped by a few minutes after one o’clock
intending to catch the 13:13 train from the adjacent station. I finished up catching the 13:53.

I was probably not a typical visitor having been to all the Greenwich council
sponsored meetings and just as was the case there, the consultant was collecting
a lot of ideas, many of them conflicting.

There are those who want more parking and those who want it to be very short
stay to maximise customer turnover. Others thought an eye catching feature at
the Knee Hill end was essential whilst one hated the idea.

I had heard Sally Williams, the retail consultant (Twitter @retailrevival),
speak before and this time we talked about the local area, she seemed to be
remarkably well informed but I was able to add to her knowledge.

Sally said that two betting shops had come in for particular criticism by
morning visitors but she was unaware that Bexley’s cabinet member for Leisure, one Peter Craske, was
spokesperson-in-chief for the Association of British
Bookmakers. She knows now.

When we discussed her involvement in the Sidcup regeneration scheme I said I had attended
the scrutiny meeting presentation on 21st June 2012. How did I remember
so clearly? It was the day Peter Craske was arrested on suspicion of Misconduct in Public Office.
Sally did not seem very surprised, maybe something to do with her involvement
with North Finchley. Look it up!

It was only when I was on the train that I remembered that I was completely wrong, June 2012 was the Bexleyheath Broadway scheme.
The Sidcup presentation was a year later on 19th June 2013. Another date of
infamy for Bexley council. It was the day that councillor Cheryl Bacon banned the public
from hearing about Sidcup, thereby breaking the letter of the law and
decided the best way of covering a minor criminal offence was to set in train
a much bigger one.

It
is almost precisely six months since Peabody Housing Association said it was
going to break the Green Chain Walk which runs right across the boroughs of
Bromley and Bexley from Crystal Palace to Lesnes Abbey and the Thames. A branch runs to the Thames
Barrier in Greenwich.

The Peabody announcement said they were going to renovate the path where it runs across their
domain in three sections, the first being that between Yarnton Way and Southmere
Lake, about 300 metres in all.

The path was officially closed on 16th February although it remained accessible
for a few days beyond that date. Reopening was scheduled for 29th May.

This is how it looked yesterday, a very long way from being completed.

A
bit of me thinks that Bexley council won’t make any
money out of its scamera cars
because people don’t go around breaking all the rules of roads, they are
generally more sensible than that aren’t they?

And then I look at the way some people park. The white Audi was parked in Abbey
Wood a few days ago right across the entry to a small cul-de-sac near the station.
He couldn’t pull forward because the double yellow line started there so half blocked the road instead.

My own road was nearly blocked today by commuter parking. The silver FIAT (Photo
2) was parked on a blind corner contrary to The Highway Code and forcing
everyone heading for Abbey Road on to the wrong side of Carrill Way.

Further along two untidily parked cars made life very difficult for anyone
driving something bigger than a large van. Obviously people with no sense or
consideration for other road users. Just the sort of people that Bexley council
will be hoping might help fill their black hole.

The driver of the silver Alfa Romeo is clearly extremely careless. Who would drive on a
tyre like that? (Photo 5.)

My reasoning was based on the fact that Bexley council has never, at least not in the five
years I’ve been watching, taken any notice of a consultation.

The people of Belvedere rejected
North Heath style improvements to Nuxley Road in 2007/8 and
£400,000 wasn’t spent there but that is the only example to be found. Last year
Belvedere confounded the experts when the Places Scrutiny committee was told it
had the lowest proportion of empty premises of any shopping centre in the borough.

However the aforesaid lady said not participating in the consultation is playing into Bexley council’s
hands and on reflection she is right.

She is keen to maximise the responses in order to save her local park (Old Farm). My suspicion remains that
Bexley council simply cannot afford not to sell the park. It is the largest item of family silver proposed
for disposal and deliberately crippling the borough’s best chance of a growth spurt and the income it would
have generated ever since coming to power in 2006, has put Bexley’s Conservatives in far worse a position
than might have been the case. Their own stupidity has left them with very few choices.

Not to sell the biggest of the parks on offer would be tantamount to scrapping Bexley’s
entire budget strategy. I really cannot see them doing that and inevitably discrediting the new recruit
from Camden - Finance Director Alison Griffin who is the brains behind it.

Nevertheless, although our expectations may be different, I shall in
future back the Sidcup lady’s view that completing the Parks Sale Consultation
is the right thing to do. She may be hoping for a miracle and I will expect to
be able to say yet again that Bexley council has ignored a consultation, but
this time a consultation that has given an overwhelming verdict rather than the
easily dismissed few hundred who usually take part.

The Save Old Farm Park people have produced
a very comprehensive website with a wealth of interesting and useful
information and in particular a lot of guidance on how best to take part in the
consultation. There are loads of things there which I would never have thought
of. It is all rather well done.

Greenwich
council continues to make all the running on
Wilton Road where £300,000 is
available to make it a more attractive place to shop, and given the number of
takeaways there, to eat and drink as well.

The leader of Greenwich council has shown an interest and the cabinet member,
director and his senior officers have all shown up at meetings, but from Bexley, no one I
have ever recognised.

Two days ago the Royal Borough issued a Press Release in which councillor Danny
Thorpe, Greenwich’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Transport said:

This is an exciting chance for local people – and people who regularly
use Abbey Wood station – to directly shape plans for the Wilton Road area, which
has even more potential to become a very popular local destination. Overall
these are really exciting times for Abbey Wood – it is wonderful to see the
changes promised because of Crossrail really starting to come to fruition. As
well as the Wilton Road scheme we’re seeing the major new Cross Quarter
development deliver new homes, new community facilities, nursery and supermarket
and wider improvements to the whole area around the new station.

The Press Release revealed that the promised public consultation tent will make an
appearance tomorrow, Friday and Saturday 8th and Monday 10th August. 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
It will be near to the Wilton Road, Abbey Arms entrance to the temporary station.

Local residents and commuters should take the opportunity to influence the area
for the better. A rare opportunity for Bexley residents to take part in a
consultation in which the decision has not already been made.

Bexley council issued two Press Releases today. First there was one that said
the number of sign ups for the new bin tax had exceeded 11,000, and then there was this one…
Note the emphasis on the bigger brown bin when in fact the annual capacity is
down by 17·5% due to the reduced collection frequency. Typical of Bexley council’s dishonesty.

The revised figure of 13,500 suggests that the break even target should be
reached but that the hoped for 30,000 may not materialise by September.

I have seen quite a lot of comment on internet forums, newspaper comment pages
etc. to the effect that a bit of garden waste can go in the green bin. At the very
first council meeting at which the subject was discussed
in detail, the responsible cabinet member who at the time was Don Massey made it absolutely clear that
Bexley council will regard that as an excuse to abrogate their responsibilities totally.
There appears to be a mistake in the final sentence, food and garden waste will
be going to separate facilities but how is that a reason for not putting either
in the green (non-recyclable) waste bin? Perhaps they couldn’t think of an excuse that made sense.

The big fraud of course is that by getting residents to segregate food and
garden waste they can not only charge for the latter but they estimated that the
processing costs would fall by
£444,000 a year. Cake and eat it. Nice.

Have
they caught you yet? Doing a sneaky U-turn, getting behind some idiot who stops
leaving a massive gap in front when traversing a yellow box junction? That sort of thing.

Be careful, Bexley council is out to get you. Since 1st August their Gestapo
wagons have been training lenses on places judged to be worth their while
in terms of plugging Bexley’s financial black hole.

At council meetings the junction of Broadway with Church Road has been held up
as an example of a possible lucrative spot, possibly creating a new
traffic hazard by parking a camera car where anyone else would be fined.

But it will all be fair and above board we were told, every one of their
favoured money boxes will be identified. “Signs will be placed in locations
where moving traffic offences will be enforced”.

Unless it is very well hidden there is no CCTV enforcement notice in Church Road.

When Bonkers is busy the south of the borough tends to be
neglected, there simply isn’t enough time to report on meetings, attend to
personal matters north of the river and tour the whole borough with a camera over my
shoulder. However with most Bexley council activities taking a couple of months
off, a bit more time has become free.

As an occasional visitor to Bexley village I have been aware of the traffic
chaos sometimes seen on Gravel Hill while Bourne Road has been closed. It must have
been shut for nearly two months now.

Crayford is not often on my itinerary but I know that on the rare occasions I
have headed off in that direction via Bourne Road the reward is usually a long
traffic queue, sometimes as far back as Hall Place.

The cause is always the junction with London Road and the inability of traffic to
turn right into Crayford across a constant stream heading into Bexleyheath.

In my ignorance I assumed that Bexley council was getting rid
of the space wasting
triangle of land in the middle of the junction and putting in something
sensible, like a roundabout.

A resident who lives not far away suggested I took myself along to take a look
and see if I could see any sign of improvement that he had failed to see.

I confess I could not, neither could two residents of houses facing the works
who I overheard being critical of the chaos on their doorsteps.
Bexley council appears to have introduced their trademark road narrowing and
constructed a simple T junction where the large triangular island used to be.
Maybe Bexley’s road planners are masters of disguise but at the moment there is nothing
obvious that looks likely to improve matters.

Councillor
Peter Craske, cabinet member for Environment and Leisure and would-be
park seller, has found £105,000 from his playground repair budget
to replace the Lesnes Abbey playground slide which was
torched by vandals on 9th June this year.

The equipment is being manufactured in France at a cost of £105,000. Let’s hope the Euro continues to fall!

Earlier this afternoon I was sitting on a swing in a brand new playground in a
small Wiltshire village speaking to the lady who had raised funds for it. There was
previously one broken swing on the site and the council there like all others had no money.

The new playground had been funded entirely by Quiz Nights, fetes and sales in
the village hall. The equipment was aimed at young children and was all Made in Britain.

Fortunately Wiltshire villages tend not to be frequented by drug fuelled morons.
Not a single Nitrous Oxide canister to be seen!

The
interviews with traders in Wilton Road, Abbey Wood have begun. Those I have
heard of have not lasted the two hours that was mentioned at
the Stakeholders’
Meeting but that’s probably because busy people cannot spare the time.

I detect some healthy cynicism that the benefits are worth waiting for, the
goodies promised are unlikely to come until next Spring or later and some want help now.

A survey of shoppers is still on the cards, some say it is planned for this week.

Still nothing going on
in Lesnes Abbey park, probably the monks built the Abbey quicker than Bexley and
their partners can build a visitor centre. Bexley council originally thought it
might be ready and open by now.

The hole in the ground is totally unexplained. Perhaps a conduit for one of the
utility services to use.

Crossrail is a whole different ball game, nothing much hangs around there. The
connection to the North Kent line is more or less done. See
yesterday’s pictures.

There
are two sorts of police officer, the type who spots someone in the back seat of
a car caught up in a stationary traffic queue who has taken off her seat belt,
invites the driver to get out and when told the passenger is heavily pregnant
and is taking the opportunity to be more comfortable for a moment, hauls herself up to her
full five foot nothing, adopts a Glaswegian head butting pose and barks “I
don’t care!” (†)

Then there’s the sort who will politely enquire why one should be bothering to take a
picture of a shabby looking Belvedere police station which is up for sale - perhaps I
should have said I was an Estate Agent - and explains that they are being
cautious in view of current security levels and happily agrees that there is
nothing in law to stop the taking of photographs in a public place, but best to play safe.

And then there is Police Constable, soon to be Sergeant, Chris Molnar.

Chris is part of the Lesnes Abbey and Thamesmead East Policing Team which also
includes Gina Buckley, Dennis Hobbs and John Pruden. They had invited me to one
of their occasional Panel meetings at the aforesaid shabby cop shop. The
invitation said I had been invited because I had shown “a desire to improve your area”.

It’s really nice to know that the police see my efforts towards ridding the borough of
Teresa O’Neill as improving the area.

Unfortunately barely 20% of the invitees bothered to show up and those who did
were the familiar old faces I have seen at every other police meeting I’ve
attended. Every one of them apart from councillor Danny Hackett would have a
Freedom Pass in his pocket. Same for the only lady present.

Chris gave an illustrated presentation on speeding, legal highs, public engagement and
illegal motor bikes along with the mandatory crime stats beloved of all
policemen. Most were going in the right direction but Domestic Violence wasn’t. Up 20·4% this year.

The local police team is a great believer in community engagement and they are
to be seen all over social media and show up at a whole load of local functions,
especially, in Chris’s case if football is involved or there is a five year old
around willing to wear his hat.

I wonder how he finds the time to chase the crooks but apparently he and his
colleagues do a bit of that too. Thamesmead East and Lesnes Abbey wards both have
fewer than half the crimes reported in the mirror image wards to be found on the
other side of Harrow Manorway. Abbey Wood and Thames Moorings.

Whilst last night’s meeting was by invitation only, thoughts are turning towards
an open meeting, possibly on October 15th.

You can follow the local police on Twitter (@MPSThamesmead
@MPSWelling etc) or sign up for newsletters, sample below.

† About 14:30, Tuesday 28th July in Burges Road, East Ham, next to the Underground
station. So if Newham’s police commander Tony Nash is listening; you’ve got a
bad apple in your barrel. Sort her out.